


Invaluable

by Llewcie



Category: Casino Royale - Fandom, Hannibal Extended Universe - Fandom, Shooting Dogs (2005)
Genre: Emotional pain, Hannibal Extended Universe, Le Chiffre discovers feelings, M/M, War Profiteering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2016-09-12
Packaged: 2018-08-14 16:01:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8020222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llewcie/pseuds/Llewcie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Le Chiffre wasn't a man who felt regret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Invaluable

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sirenja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sirenja/gifts).



> This is based on [this gifset ](https://tmblr.co/Z3kt0r2B-1DZC)by the incredibly talented and skilled Sirenja. Thank you to @Radiomuse for the beta and the tears!

Le Chiffre wasn't a man who felt regret. Those who knew his business would say that he couldn't afford to, but the truth was, one doesn't feel sentimentality over numbers. Numbers were subtracted in one column and added in another, and only fools mourned the losses that led directly to gains. It seemed a mathematical impossibility, then, when the one person he had never considered a number got added to the debit column.

He had not even known Joe Connor all that long. One tedious society party where he had watched the awkward young man's flailing attempts at networking in an ill-fitting shirt and clearly borrowed jacket and tie, had rescued him with a drink and an offer to discuss the school he taught at the Ecole, where the Belgian UN harbored Tutsi refugees. Le Chiffre had no interest in the war, only there to pick up opportunities to rescue those who could pay, on behalf of a client in Belgium who needed good publicity. It was all business to Le Chiffre, and so he listened with bemused tolerance as the young man sized up his designer clothing and clumsily attempted to charm him into contributing.

So it was with less a sense of charity and more a sense of pure astonishment when Le Chiffre found himself agreeing to meet Joe the next week, at the gates to the Ecole, to discuss their business further. Nor was it the last time they met. Joe was loathe to go too far from his students, so they had coffee in the kitchen-- Le Chiffre brought his own unground beans on their second meeting and had the satisfaction of making Joe's storm-colored eyes dilate with pleasure at the first sip.

Their conversation ranged from the war raging in Rwanda to Joe's home in Cambridge, and often, Joe told stories about the delight he took in teaching. Even in a classroom filled with students who had lost everything, there was joy, and Joe's face lit up when he described it, making Le Chiffre reach for a moment for his inhaler, not realizing that this wasn't his lungs squeezing him, but his heart.

When he was requested by his Belgian client to join in with the Hutu militia and take down the Ecole after the UN abandoned it, he was struck with a curious feeling. On the one hand, his client's credit column was about to enjoy a very large increase, and that pleased him. On the other hand… Joe Connor. So it was with an unfamiliar feeling of nervousness that he untucked his long legs from the back of his up-armored SUV and stood to dial Joe's telephone extension.

Joe answered with a polite, "Yes." His voice was cold. Did he know?

Le Chiffre for a moment, was struck. He had the opportunity to warn Joe, and by extension, his students, that death was coming for them. But… where would 2500 Tutsi people go? There was nowhere for them now that the UN had withdrawn. There was no saving them. There was only the very slight possibility that he could save Joe. He calmed his thoughts, knowing he had been too long silent.

"Joe? I will pick you up at the usual place."

Joe was silent on the other end, his breathing strained. Le Chiffre realized that he could not make Joe come to the gate. He was entirely helpless in this, able only to ask. And whether Joe could bear to look at his face afterwards… well, that would only be important if they both managed to survive. Le Chiffre took a deep breath, and into his voice he layered all of his earnest affection, his desire to see Joe again, to… well. He nodded, a soft sigh escaping his tightening lungs.

"Don't be late."


End file.
